PIERCE 

Address  Delivered  Before  the 

Alumni  of  Brown  University, 


LD 
649 
A3 
1880 


The  Public  and  Social  Duties 


College  Graduate 


AN    ADDRESS 


l)Kl,lVKl:i;i>    liKlOKK 


The  Alumni  of  Brown  University, 


COMMENCEMENT.   1880. 


^'HoN.    Edward    L.    Pierce 


/ 


ADDRESS 


DELIA'EKED    BEFORE  THE 


Alumni  of  Brown  University, 


TUESDAY,    JUNE    15,     188  0, 


HOX.  EDWARD  L.  PIERCE. 


P  O  E  M 


REV.  S.   F.  SillTH.,  D.   D. 


PROVIDFAXE  : 
SIDNEY      S  .     RIDER 

1880. 


At  a  meeting  of  tlie  Alumni  of  Brown  University,  held  in  the  Chapel 
of  Manning  Ilall  on  Tuesday,  June  15,  1880,  it  was 

Voted,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Association  be  tendered  to  the  Hon. 
EnWAHD  L.  PiERCK  for  the  able,  eloquent,  and  appropriate  Address 
delivered  by  him  befoi'e  the  Alumni  this  day;  also  to  the  Rev.  Samukl 
F.  Smith,  D.  D  ,  for  his  excellent  poem ;  and  that  the  Secretary'  be 
directed  to  request  copies  of  the  same  for  publication. 

Attest: — 

KeL'UEX    a.    Gl'ILD, 

Secretary. 


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ADDRESS. 


This  is  the  festival  season  of  culture.  On  these 
fair  days  of  June  scholars  come  as  pilgrims  to  seats  of 
learning,  and  youths  go  forth  from  them  to  assume  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  men.  Few  spectacles  in 
human  life  attract  sympathies  so  genuine  and  universal. 
If  our  hearts  are  rightly  attuned  we  cannot  fail  to  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  occasions  in  which  worldliness  yields 
to  ])rimal  instincts.  The  traveller,  in  a  foreign  city, 
pauses  by  the  wayside  as  teachers  and  pupils  celebrate 
some  holiday  with  songs  and  banners,  or  children  in 
white  array  go  to  their  first  communion,  or  bride  and 
bridegroom,  with  the  loving  escort  of  kinsfolk  and 
neighbors,  enter  the  cathedral  to  receive  the  consecra- 
tion of  their  vows.  Speaking  another  language,  and 
kneeling  at  other  altars,  they  are  for  the  time  of  his 
kindred  and  family,  and  he  blesses-  them  with  a  stran- 
ger's benediction. 


Ill  a  like  scene,  to  which  all  hearts  are  responsive, 
we  have  met  again  to  participate.  Nearly  three-score 
young  men,  equipped  for  active  life,  go  forth  from  the 
University  to  enter  on  the  work  which  God  shall  ap- 
point unto  each  to  do.  Father,  mother,  sister,  brother, 
are  to  rejoice  in  the  growing  promise  of  one  on  whom 
their  hope  has  centred.  The  ingenuous  youth  himself 
is  to  see  visions  of  the  future  as  it  offers  duties,  honors, 
rewards.  Vs'e  as  spectators,  in  sober  thought,  shall 
contemplate  the  possibilities  of  each  as  he  comes  upon 
this  platform  where  once  we  have  stood,  and  shall  ask 
what  will  he  do  with  the  training,  the  acquirements,  and 
the  inspiration  of  his  college  life  ? 

I  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  stand  before  you  to-day, 
looking  into  the  faces  of  early  companions  ;  in  a  church 
where  holy  men,  no  longer  in  mortal  flesh,  my  guides 
and  friends, —  G ranger,  Wayland,  Caswell, —  still  speak 
in  their  remembered  ministrations;  in  a  city  beautiful  for 
situation,  to  which  I  am  bound  by  ties  far  tenderer  than 
those  of  any  academic  fellowship  ;  and,  what  most  con- 
cerns the  hour,  in  the  presence  of  young  men  who  are 
passing  from  the  seclusion  of  the  college  to  the  activi- 
ties of  the  world.  You  will  not  be  vexed  this  morning 
with  any  old  question  of  literature  or  history,  or  with 
any  sj)eculations  of  science  ;  but  the  occasion  in  which 
we  join,  and  the  period  in  which  we  live,  shall  suggest 
mv  theme :  — 


THE    PUBLIC    A>;D    SOCIAL    DUTIES    OF    THE    COLLEGE 
GRADUATE. 

It  would  add  to  the  value  of  our  statistical  tables  if 
they  informed  us  with  substantial  accuracy  how  many 
students  are  now  in  institutions  which  may  fairly  be 
called  colleges  according  to  the  American  standard, 
and  how  many  receive  degrees  from  them  each  year; 
what  is  the  total  number  of  such  graduates  in  the  coun- 
try, and  how  they  are  distributed  among  the  various 
professions  ;  but  however  unsatisfactory  the  attainable 
figures  may  be,  all  will  agree  that  the  college  graduates 
living  at  any  period  ought  to  be  a  prodigious  force  in 
the  direction  of  public  opinion. 

Without  refining  upon  the  purpose  of  the  college 
curriculum,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  arranged  pri- 
marily for  the  discipline  of  the  whole  man,  his  intellec- 
tual and  his  moral  nature ;  and  secondarily  for  the  acqui- 
sition of  the  elements  of  knowledge  in  as  many  depart- 
ments as  time  permits,  so  that  thereafter,  by  himself  or 
under  specialists,  the  student  may  pursue  any  one  accord- 
ing to  his  taste  and  aptitude.  It  puts  in  complete  work- 
ing order  the  noblest  machine  in  the  universe,  and 
starts  it  off  to  become  the  greatest  of  dynamic  agencies 
for  good  or  for  evil.  AYith  it  ought  to  come  a  clear  per- 
ception of  truth  in  the  various  human  relations,  and  a 
facility  for  impressing  that  truth  on  others.     The  studies 


are  not  confined  to  one  specialty  or  group,  but  are  com- 
prehensive. They  deal  with  the  intellectual  and  moral 
nature,  with  the  best  thoughts  of  antiquity,  with  the 
material  world,  with  what  is  taught  by  science  in  its 
manifold  divisions,  and  with  what  has  transpired  in 
human  history.  If  one  study  followed  exclusively  tends 
to  disturb  a  normal  development,  this  curriculum,  so 
broad  and  inclusive,  aAvakens  the  whole  soul,  and  teaches 
truth  not  as  an  absolute  entity  alone,  but  in  its  many 
relations.  This  is  what  Milton  describes  when  he  says: 
"I  call,  therefore,  a  complete  and  generous  education 
that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly,  skilfully,  and 
magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both  private  and  public, 
of  peace  and  war." 

The  College  does  more  than  train  faculties  and  teach 
elements.  This  may  be  done  under  private  tutorship 
or  in  a  lecture-room,  without  association  among  stu- 
dents, or  between  students  and  professors.  The  College 
is  a  society.  It  is  a  society  founded  for  a  noble  pur- 
pose, rich  in  the  implements  of  culture,  hallowed  by 
tlic  devotion  of  its  benefactors,  glorious  often  by  what 
it  has  done  for  mankind.  As  such  a  society,  it  forms, 
directs,  and  inspires  its  successive  generations  of  stu- 
dents. 

The  college  student  is  for  four  years  set  apart  from 
mankind.  He  is  here  at  a  period  when  the  soul  is 
sensitive  to  all  impressions,  when  the  character  takes 
its  direction.     He  comes  as  a  boy :  he  leaves  as  a  man. 


The  world  he  enters  is  unlike  that  which  for  a  time 
has  closed  to  him.  They  have  points  of  comparison, 
but  their  points  of  contrast  are  many  and  striking. 
Outside  is  the  conflict  of  material  interests,  the  classifi- 
cation of  men  with  reference  to  wealth  or  worldly  suc- 
cess, the  subordination  of  the  better  impulses  to  the 
lower,  the  pressure  of  expediency  against  duty,  the 
assertion  and  practice  of  a  conventional  morality  in 
politics  and  trade,  which  sneers  at  the  highest  rectitude 
as  sentimental  and  pharisaic.  There,  too,  are  the  fierce 
competitions  for  place,  the  war  cries  of  parties  which 
no  longer  signify  living  issues,  and  the  fever  of  specu- 
lation, with  its  curious  periodicity  of  return. 

From  all  this  the  college  student  is  withdrawn.  He 
is  indeed  born  and  remains  with  like  passions  as  the 
rest  oY  us,  but  his  time  has  not  yet  come.  If  the  noise 
without  reaches  him,  he  is  undisturbed,  for  he  listens 
rather  to  the  calm  voices  of  teachers  and  books.  If, 
from  his  chamber  window,  he  has  a  glimpse  of  human 
activities,  he  sees  them  only  as  spectator  and  critic. 
If  public  journals  and  partisans  condone  corruption  and 
duplicity  in  high  places,  or  are  subservient  to  clamor, 
or  are  always  dinning  in  our  ears  that  it  is  the  highest 
duty  of  a  citizen  to  sustain  party  nominations  however 
objectionable,  he  turns  for  instruction  to  moralists  like 
AVayland,  and  to  publicists  like  Lieber  and  Woolsey. 
AVhatever  outlook  he  may  have,  he  is  in  personal  inter- 
est and  activity  isolated  from  the  world  beyond.     His 


stand  is  at  a  point  wlieie  all  finer  influences  meet.  He 
is  of  a  commonwealth  typical  in  some  respects  of  the 
outer  life,  but  separate  and  apart  from  it.  He  lives  in 
a  community  where  knowledge  is  the  pursuit  of  all ; 
where  the  atmosphere  is  charged  with  an  inspiring  and 
vitalizing  force  ;  where  rank  among  his  fellows  depends 
not  on  birth  or  wealth,  but  on  generosity,  true  manli- 
ness, and  achievements  of  intellectual  power ;  where 
pretension  and  genuine  character  are  readily  and 
almost  always  justly  assorted ;  where  his  immediate 
examplars  are  students  already  distinguished  by  promise 
and  attainment,  and  professors  of  finished  culture  and 
unworldly  lives.  He  holds  converse  all  the  while  with 
the  great  masters  of  thought  in  every  age,  and  in  their 
presence  discerns  what  is  transient  and  what  is  endur- 
ing. "With  each  visit  to  the  library,  he  sees  at  every 
turn  of  the  eye  what  names  live  and  what  soon  perish. 
He  tests  in  the  class-room  and  in  the  solitude  of  his 
study  the  relations  of  things  by  eternal  standards  ;  and 
there  he  learns  from  constant  iteration  and  reflection 
the  supreme  value  of  the  individual  soul,  survi\ing 
societies,  institutions,  governments, —  its  right  of  private 
judgment  superior  to  the  authority  of  Church  and  State  ; 
its  perpetual  obligations  to  truth  and  duty  with  no 
exceptions  for  exigencies  and  crises,  personal  or  public. 
Moral  philosophy  teaches  the  supremacy  of  conscience  ; 
mental  philosophy  aflSrms  the  right  to  think  for  one's 
self  as  the  foundation  of  intellectual  life  ;  and  historv 


9 


teaches  how  posterity  reserves  its  garlands  for  those 
only  who  maintained  in  lives  of  thought  or  action  the 
courage  of  their  convictions.  The  College,  then,  in  all 
her  nurture,  from  the  hour  when  she  calls  the  youth  to 
herself  to  the  hour  when  she  bids  him  go  forth  to  his 
work,  helps  him  to  see  truth  as  it  is,  to  live  it  among 
men,  and  to  maintain  a  vigorous  personality  in  the 
strong  currents  of  society. 

This  individuality,  which  is  essential  to  manhood 
and  to  all  good  work  in  the  world,  is  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  self-assertion,  irreverence,  or  eccentricity, 
—  opposite  vices  which  college  discipline  tends  to  coun- 
teract. The  true  scholar  is  in  a  sense  the  citizen  of  all 
nations,  the  contemporary  of  all  ages.  He  has  an  open 
ear  for  the  according  voices  of  "his  own  generation,  and 
for  the  wisdom  of  the  past.  In  his  own  judgments  he 
will  take  account  of  the  consensus  of  living  men,  and 
respect  custom  and  tradition. 

*'  Well  speed  thy  mission,  bold  Iconoclast ! 
Yet  all  unworthy  of  its  trust  thou  art, 
If  with  dry  ej'e  and  cold,  unloving  heart, 
Thou  tread'st  the  solemn  Pantlieon  of  the  Past, 
By  the  great  Future's  dazzling  hope  made  blind 
To  all  the  beauty,  power,  and  truth  behind." 

What  place,  then,  is  so  adapted  as  the  College  to 
form  and  solidify  a  manly  character,  to  promote  fearless 
inquiry  and  independent  conviction,  to  encourage  the 
pursuit  of  lofty  ideals,  to  put  in  true  perspective  all  the 


10 


prizes  of  ambition  1  Where  else  shall  we  send  the 
youth  of  our  country  with  equal  hope  that  they  will 
come  forth  to  be  contented  with  moderate  gains  in  the 
midst  of  speculation  ;  to  live  frugally  in  the  midst  of 
extravagance ;  to  assert  the  right  of  private  judgment 
against  authority  ;  to  carry  a  clear  head  and  a  strong 
will  in  all  periods  of  frenzy  and  delusion ;  and  to 
plant  a  firm  foot  against  organized  bodies  which  would 
usurp  individual  responsibility?  I  answer  with  confi- 
dence, that  there  is  no  such  school  of  manhood  as  the 
College.  Thousands  may  fail  to  learn  the  lesson,  to 
realize  the  ideal ;  but  they,  not  the  College,  are  at  fault. 
So  true  is  it  what  Wordsworth  says,  that  it  is 

"  —  the  most  difficult  of  tasks  to  keep 
Heights  which  the  soul  is  competent  to  gaiu." 

Nor  does  the  power  of  the  College  over  us  end  when 
our  names  drop  from  its  annual  catalogue.  Each  one 
remains  accountable  to  teachers  and  classmates  and 
contemporary  students,  and  he  never  can  escape  from 
their  moral  jurisdiction.  Can  any  one  of  that  famous 
class  of  1829  at  Cambridge,  which  enrolls  men  preemi- 
nent in  science,  literature,  jurisprudence,  and  theology, 
— and  among  them  the  author  of  "  My  country,  'tis  of 
thee,"  who  to-day  serves  us  as  poet, — ever  emancipate 
himself  from  the  dominion  of  such  a  fellowship  ?  Can  a 
pupil  of  Wayland,  Hopkins,  Porter,  Robinson,  when  med- 
itating an  act  of  meanness  or  dishonor,  fail  to  hear  the 


11 


upbraiding  voice  of  the  good  President,  living  or  dead, 
at  whose  feet  he  was  nurtured  ?  Can  I,  when  a  choice 
of  conduct  is  before  me,  one  offering  the  rewards  of 
duty  and  the  other  worldly  temptations,  be  blind  to  the 
presence  of  my  college  teachers,  four  of  whom  survive,^ 
—  three  living  in  Providence,  and  one,  my  cherished 
friend  from  college  days,  the  Latin  professor,  who  is  still 
at  his  ancient  post?  And  shall  I  not  then  also  see 
about  me  as  witnesses  and  judges,  contemporary  stu- 
dents of  my  own  and  other  classes,  —  my  classmate  and 
chum,-  who,  after  faithful  service  in  a  metropolitan  pul- 
pit, now  holds  a  cliair  at  Princeton  ;  an  alumnus  of  an 
earlier  class,"  now  a  Professor  at  Yale,  whose  treatment 
of  Christian  history  at  its  beginning  and  in  later  times 
has  done  so  much  to  establish  an  intelligent  faith  ;  an 
alumnus  of  a  later  class,*  distinguished  by  his  culture 
and  historical  studies,  now  the  Professor  of  History  in 
this  college  ;  two  members  of  another  class, —  one,^  the 
President  of  Michigan  University,  who  has  recently 
been  appointed  the  chief  of  an  embassy  to  China, 
sent  to  adjust  the  relation  of  that  Oriental  Power  with 
Western  civilization  ;  and  the  other,^  by  whose  immedi- 
ate invitation  I  am  here  to-day,  a  civilian  honored  for 
many  years  with  an  important  trust  from  the  national 
government,  and  a  soldier  who  signalized  his  patriotism 


1.  Professors  Chace,  Gammell,  Lincoln,  Boise.  i.    Kev.  J.  Lewis  Diman. 

2.  Rev.  James  O.  Murray.  5.    Hon.  James  B.  Angell. 
.3.    Rev.  George  P.  Fisher.                    •  6.    Gen.  A.  B.  Underwood. 


12 


on  fields  of  battle,  and  whose  person  bears  the  perpetual 
seal  of  his  heroism  amid  the  blazin*'  columns  of  Wau- 


hatchie  ? 


Will  it  be  said  that  I  have  given  an  ideal  picture 
of  what  the  College  ought  to  do  for  a  man,  rather  than 
a  statement  of  what  it  does  ?  I  answer,  No  !  Where- 
ever  public  spirit,  loyalty  to  conviction,  resistance  to 
clamor,  perseverance  in  good  causes  amid  discourage- 
ments, the  patient  endurance  of  hardships,  and  courage 
without  fear  of  death  have  been  manifested,  there  the 
college  graduate  has  been  conspicuous.  You  will  find 
him  at  the  missionary  station  most  remote  from  civiliza- 
tion, careless  of  discomforts,  facing  even  martyrdom, — 
as  witness  the  career  of  John  Coleridge  Patteson,  a  stu- 
dent and  fellow  at  Oxford,  uniting  in  his  blood  and 
name  two  families  distinguished  in  the  judicial  history 
of  England.  In  our  civil  war  no  class  gave  a  readier 
response  to  the  summons  of  patriotism  than  college 
men  ;  none  were  more  quick  to  enroll  themselves  in  the 
military  service  than  the  students  and  younger  members 
of  the  alumni.  Their  proportionate  contribution  was, 
according  to  statistics  collected  with  care,  larger  than 
that  made  by  the  public  generally.  The  New  England 
colleges  sent  nearly  a  quarter  of  their  students  and 
graduates  of  military  age  into  the  service.  In  some 
colleges  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  West  the  Commence- 
ment was  given  up,  the  whole  graduating  class  having 


13 


volunteered.  Oberlin  is  said  to  have  sent  seven  hun- 
dred of  her  students  and  ahimni  to  the  field,  of  whom, 
one  hundred  gave  their  lives.  But  what  the  college 
men  did  for  their  country  in  that  hour  of  peril  cannot 
be  measured  by  numbers  alone.  The  example  of  each 
was  in  itself  a  power,  a  reinforcement.  That  nation  is 
safe  when  its  highest  and  best  are  foremost  in  self- 
abnegation.  Who  could  look  on  their  manly  forms, 
often  more  beautiful  than  that  which  ancient  art  chis- 
elled in  the  Antinous  —  their  eyes  beaming  with  intelli- 
gence and  lofty  spirit ;  who  could  see  them  leaving 
homes  of  refinement  and  opening  careers  to  undergo 
the  hardships  of  camp  and  march,  to  suffer  weary 
months  in  hospitals  and  die  on  battlefields, — who  could 
behold  that  spectacle,  and  not  feel  assured  that  all 
would  be  well  with  a  country  whose  educated  youth 
were  such  as  these  ^  Where  in  ancient  or  modern 
times  have  there  been  sublimer  scenes  than  were  wit- 
nessed after  the  war  on  commemorative  occasions  at  our 
colleges,  when,  amid  battle  flags  and  trophies  and 
shields  bearing  the  names  of  the  fallen,  scarred  veterans 
were  received,  not  with  a  Roman,  but  with  a  Christian 
triumph?  Is  there  in  ours,  or  any  land,  a  more  impres- 
sive structure  than  the  Memorial  Hall  at  Cambridge,  on 
whose  walls  Harvard  has  carved  with  classic  tributes 
the  names  of  her  patriot  dead  ?  Where  in  ages  to  come 
shall  mankind  turn  for  more  inspiring  examples  than 
are  found  in  the  volumes   in  which   the   colleges  have 


14 


preserved  with  loving  care  the  heroism  of  their  sons  I 
If  it  shall  be  said  that  culture  alienates  from  common 
interests  and  sympathies ;  that  the  College,  while  it 
drills  the  intellect  and  gives  an  aesthetic  direction  to  the 
faculties,  fails  to  ennoble  character, —  our  civil  war 
with  its  histories,  its  biographies,  and  its  monuments 
will  be  a  final  answer. 

If  the  College  has  done  less  than  it  should  have  for 
the  improvement  of  American  politics,  it  has  in  emi- 
nent examples  shown  what  it  can  accomplish  in  that 
direction.  The  active  participation,  within  the  last  few 
years,  of  young  men,  largely  recent  graduates  of  col- 
leges, in  the  movement  to  purify  and  improve  civil 
administration,  and  to  test  public  men  by  severer 
standards  than  before,  is  the  most  hopeful  sign  of 
contemporary  politics.  As  typical  of  this  class  I  men- 
tion Henry  Armitt  Brown,  of  Philadelphia,  whose 
beautiful  life  and  character  Professor  Hoppin  has  put 
in  a  volume  destined,  I  trust,  to  assist  in  moulding  gen- 
erations of  young  men.  A  student  at  Yale,  he  was  a 
true  collegian,  fair  in  scholarship,  a  diligent  reader,  pre- 
serving his  purity,  active  in  college  sports,  always  fore- 
most in  song,  poem,  and  speech.  Qualifying  himself 
for  the  bar,  and  enriching  his  culture  with  foreign 
travel,  he  entered  on  active  life  with  a  serious  purpose. 
He  cultivated  the  art  of  public  speaking,  and  pursued 
the  studies  which  are  combined  in  all  finished  statesmen, 
—  history,  the  classics,  the   masterpieces   of  great  ora- 


15 


tors,  public  law,  political  economy,  and  the  industrial 
and  social  questions  of  the  time.  The  civil  war  and 
the  period  of  reconstruction  had  passed  when  he  took 
his  place  on  the  platform,  but  he  found  field  enough  for 
his  powers.  He  assailed  corruption  in  municipal  gov- 
ernment, entered  actively  into  political  campaigns,  ad- 
dressing immense  audiences,  and  pleading  always  for 
higher  policies  in  finance  and  civil  administration.  He 
came  to  the  platform  at  the  centennial  epoch,  and  in 
orations  upon  our  early  and  revolutionary  history  he 
was  accurate  in  details,  picturesque  in  narrative,  ele- 
vating in  tone,  solemn  in  purpose.  Compare  him  with 
the  public  men  who  now  hold  or  for  many  years  have 
held  the  foremost  places  in  his  State,  and  it  is  refresh- 
ing to  see  what  this  gifted  young  man  had  simply  as  a 
citizen  accomplished  at  thirty-three. 

The  training  of  the  College  imposes  duties  various 
and  comprehensive.  Culture  must  not  end  in  itself ; 
if  it  does,  it  becomes  that  "  fugitive  and  cloistered  vir- 
tue "  which  Milton  refused  to  praise.  In  order  to 
deserve  divine  approval  and  win  human  favor,  it  must 
not  live  apart  from  men,  contemplating  its  own  beauty 
and  perfection.  It  must  diffuse  sweetness  and  light  as 
well  as  have  them.  The  scholar's  sphere  will  always 
be  larger  than  himself,  his  family,  and  his  business. 
He  is  a  patriot ;  and  he  will  strive  to  purify  public  life, 
to    ennoble    the    national  spirit.     He  is   a  townsman ; 


16 


and  he  will  take  part  in  efforts  to  promote  public  edu- 
cation and  health,  honesty  and  economy  in  municipal 
administration ;  and  he  will  not  think  it  beneath  his  dig- 
nity to  serve  in  any  official  capacity, —  selectman,  over- 
seer of  the  poor,  or  member  of  the  school  committee. 
He  is  a  neighbor;  and  he  will  without  pretension  dif- 
fuse about  him  by  example  and  word  the  spirit  and 
knowledge  with  which  the  College  has  endowed  him. 
He  will  take  time  for  conversation,  for  personal  inter- 
course with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  The  dif- 
ference between  communities  as  places  in  which  to  live 
and  to  hold  real  estate,  depends  often  not  so  much  on  a 
fortunate  site,  and  facilities  of  communication,  as  upon 
the  quality  of  the  prominent  citizens  who  give  the  tone 
to  its  civic  life. 

The  College  will  have  a  closer  connection  with  the 
world,  and  will  have  a  greater  power  over  men  when  it 
ceases  to  be  regarded  chiefly  as  a  preparatory  school  for 
what  are  called  the  learned  professions.  When  its 
graduates  are  distributed "  among  farmers,  tradesmen, 
and  mechanics,  they  will  no  longer  appear  to  the  gener- 
ality as  a  sedentary  class,  reposing  under  grateful  shades 
while  the  multitude  are  toiling  in  the  heat,  visionary 
while  the  rest  are  practical,  a  privileged  body  placed 
above  the  common  lot.  It  is  an  auspicious  sign  that 
the  stream  which  flows  from  the  college  is  now  spread- 
ing fertility  into  new  flelds.     The  alumnus  is  not  only 


17 


a  minister,  lawyer,  physician,  teacher ;  he  is  also  a  civil 
engineer,  manufacturer,  merchant,  farmer,  artisan. 
Among  the  founders  of  a  new  town  in  Colorado  a  few 
years  ago  were  twenty  college  men.  A  gentleman, 
once  a  professor  of  this  college,  and  afterwards  the 
manager  of  a  large  mining  establishment  in  that  State,^ 
became  by  his  public  spirit  its  first  citizen,  and  then  its 
representative  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

I  venture  in  this  presence  to  suggest  —  what  may 
seem  heresy  to  some  —  that  there  is  a  tendency  in  our 
country  to  overvalue  what  is  called  "  higher  education," 
at  least  as  compared  with  certain  homely  virtues  on 
which  the  family  and  society  depend, —  industry,  con- 
tentment, fixedness  in  home  and  pursuit.  Our  high 
schools  are  multiplying  the  number  of  young  men  and 
women  who  turn  from  farm,  mechanical,  and  domestic 
work,  and  apply  for  employment  as  clerks  and  scrive- 
ners. The  trained  nurse,  how  hard  to  find !  but  copy- 
ists, what  legions  of  them  of  both  sexes  are  always 
waiting  to  serve  you  !  Even  our  reform-schools  press 
their  inmates  to  a  point  of  intellectual  excitement  so 
far  above  their  moral  development  that  upon  their  dis- 
charge they  treat  as  beneath  them  farm  or  domestic 
drudgery.  This  tendency  is  more  marked  with  us  than 
in  any  other  country.  It  exists,  however,  elsewhere,  as 
in  Greece,  where  the  University  is  regarded  by  some  as 
an  obstacle  to  material  progress.     It  results  there  in  a 

1.    Hon.  N.  p.  Hill. 


w 


18 


dearth  of  men  fitted  for  surveying,  mining,  road- making, 
bridge-building,  and  farming  ;  while  there  is  a  superflu- 
ous number  of  lawyers,  doctors,  and  clerks,  who,  hav- 
ing no  chance  of  a  career,  become  idle,  restless  agita- 
tors. Are  not  the  leaders  in  our  educational  movements 
responsible  in  some  measure  for  that  disgust  with  man- 
ual labor, —  for  that  mischievous  notion  that  it  is  a  mis- 
fortune, even  a  dishonor,  to  have  to  work  for  one's  liv- 
ing on  the  farm,  in  the  factory,  or  in  domestic  service, 
— which  underlies  the  dangerous  movements  of  our 
time,  and  finally  assails  social  order,  as  in  the  municipal 
elections  of  San  Francisco  and  the  riots  of  Pittsburg  ? 
That  civilization  is  not  healthy  which  divorces  the  train- 
ing of  the  intellect  from  the  labor  of  the  hands  ;  and 
that  personal  culture  is  defective  in  which  these  cun- 
ning fingers,  these  powerful  muscles,  these  stalwart 
limbs  are  left  altogether  unexercised  in  productive 
industry.  At  least  as  a  recreation  manual  labor  helps 
to  maintain  the  tone  of  the  intellectual  life,  as  eminent 
examples  bear  witness.  Some  of  us  remember  Dr. 
Wayland,  hoe  in  hand,  crossing  the  college  yard  of 
a  summer  morning  to  work  in  his  garden,  near  where 
the  Memorial  Ilall  now  stands  ;  and  the  present  British 
Prime  Minister  is  said  to  be  the  best  woodchopper  in 
the  three  kingdoms. 

The  proportion  of  graduates  whose  inherited  for- 
tunes place  them  above  the  necessity  of  relying  upon 


19 


their  earnings  for  support  has  increased  with  the  grow- 
ing wealth  of  the  country.  It  is  not  well  for  such  to 
compete  for  clients  and  patrons  in  professions  already 
overcrowded  ;  but  nevertheless  they  owe  a  large  duty 
to  society.  They  ought  not,  as  too  many  of  them  do, 
to  lead  aimless  lives,  keeping  apart  from  men,  fre- 
quenting clubs,  travelling  in  Europe,  lounging  at  water- 
ing places,  or,  at  the  best,  amateuring  in  art  or  books. 
As  Lord  Bacon  has  nobly  said,  "  In  the  theatre  of 
human  life  it  is  only  for  God  and  angels  to  be  specta- 
tors." Society  has  many  offices  of  beneficence  which 
should  be  filled  by  men  instructed  in  the  best  knowledge 
of  their  time,  and  placed  by  exceptional  circumstances 
above  the  temptations  which  beset  a  struggling  life. 
There  is  a  vast  amount  of  unremunerative  work  to  be 
done, —  for  the  relief  of  pauperism,  the  care  of  the  pub- 
lic health,  the  support  of  education,  the  working  of 
municipal  government,  the  management  of  prisons  and 
hospitals,  the  administration  of  charities  and  savings 
banks,  the  protection  of  the  Indian,  the  freedman, 
and  the  emigrant ;  but  when  such  honorable  though 
gratuitous  service  is  ofi"ered,  it  is  too  often  declined  by 
persons  of  elegant  leisure,  and  finally  falls  upon  more 
earnest  men,  already  overworked  in  their  professions. 
Noblesse  oblige  applies  to  all  fortunate  classes  ;  and  cul- 
ture combined  with  wealth  ought  to  do  in  a  republic 
what  it  has  been  claimed  aristocracy  has  done  as  a 
privileged  order. 


20 


Educated  men  sometimes  complain  that  a  political 
career  in  this  country  is  closed  to  a  gentleman,  and  open 
only  to  men  of  coarse  and  pushing  energy.  If  there 
be  anything  in  this,  they  who  complain  are  often  in  a 
measure  responsible  for  the  exclusion.  No  man  has  a 
right  to  expect  the  confidence  and  favor  of  constituen- 
cies until  he  has  shown  capacity  for  affairs  and  an 
active  interest  in  the  public  welfare.  An  English 
writer,  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison,  has  said  that  "the  active 
exercise  of  politics  requires  common  sense,  sympathy, 
trust,  resolution,  and  enthusiasm, —  qualities  which  your 
man  of  culture  has  carefully  rooted  up,  lest  they  dam- 
age the  delicacy  of  his  critical  olfactories." 

Here,  then,  in  the  spheres  I  have  named,  the  way 
opens  for  educated  men  of  wealth  to  careers  of  useful- 
ness and  honor.  The  transition  from  such  beneficent 
service  to  public  life  is  natural ;  but  what  if  it  does  not 
take  place  ?  The  best  public  work  of  our  day  is  done 
outside  of  legislative  bodies, —  in  thoughtful  discussions 
by  specialists,  and  by  charitable,  business,  and  scientific 
commissions,  which  mature  conclusions  and  frame  stat- 
utes. Lord  Brougham  in  his  final  estimate  of  Canning 
mentions  as  his  greatest  defect  that  lie  had  reasoned 
himself  into  the  belief,  which  he  was  wont  to  profess, 
that  no  man  can  serve  his  country  with  efl'ect  out  of 
office,  as  if  there  were  no  public,  no  forum,  no  press, — 
the  most  pernicious  notion  which,  in  his  opinion,  ever 
entered  into  the  mind  of  a  public  man. 


21 


Oar  educated  young  men,  who  are  placed  above  the 
necessity  of  constant  service  in  a  profession,  may  learn 
a  lesson  from  English  history.  How  is  it  that  the 
English  nobility  has  survived  the  wreck  which  has 
befallen  similar  orders  elsewhere  in  Europe,  so  that  it 
continues  to  furnish  popular  statesmen,  and  no  candi- 
date for  the  House  of  Commons  so  attracts  constituen- 
cies as  the  son  of  a  peer  ]  It  is  because  at  all  periods 
many  of  them  have  been  distinguished  by  beneficent 
activities.  They  have  not  been  idlers  ;  they  have  writ- 
ten histories,  translated  the  classics,  cultivated  science, 
trained  themselves  in  the  art  of  public  speaking,  led 
in  movements  for  moral  and  physical  amelioration, 
and  have  in  some  measure  preserved  the  best  idea  of 
feudalism, —  the  duty  which  superior  privilege  owes  to 
inferior  fortune.  They  perform  common  labors,  fill 
important  trusts,  and  administer  charities  without  com- 
pensation. They  are  represented  in  every  unpaid  par- 
liamentary or  social  investigation,  and  they  sit  in  local 
tribunals  without  salary  or  fees.  Lord  Wharncliffe, 
grandfather  of  the  present  peer,  presided  for  more  than 
thirty  years  at  the  Quarter  Sessions  in  Sheffield,  dis- 
charging the  duty  gratuitously  and  in  a  manner  to  dis- 
tinguish himself  among  English  magistrates.  How 
many  wealthy  graduates  of  American  colleges  would  be 
willing  to  serve  without  compensation  as  justices  of  the 
peace  and  police  judges  ? 


22 


The  relation  of  the  college  graduate  to  politics 
presses  upon  our  attention  to-day.  Literary  men  have 
too  much  the  habit  of  treating  political  duty  in  the 
spirit  of  triflers,  and  they  have  often  only  a  smile,  if 
not  a  sneer,  for  others  who  busy  themselves  to  save  the 
State  from  a  disastrous  policy  or  from  unworthy  public 
men.  But  can  any  conduct  be  more  irrational  ?  Poli- 
tics is  the  science  of  government ;  it  relates  in  one  way 
or  another  to  all  that  concerns  organized  society.  And 
can  there  be  any  nobler  pursuit  ?  It  is  the  theme  and 
title  of  a  treatise  of  Aristotle  who  ruled  philosophy  for 
eighteen  centuries,  and  who  did  not  think  the  subject 
unworthy  of  his  thought.  Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  a 
politician  for  fifty  years,  and  vi^here  will  you  find  a  finer 
type  of  manhood  than  in  him  ?  You  will  indeed  meet 
with  ignoble  passions  in  political  parties ;  but  you  will 
meet  with  these  in  all  human  activities,  even  in  relig- 
ious movements.  But  however  repelling  some  aspects 
of  contemporary  politics  may  be,  the  good  citizen  is 
bound  to  do  his  best  to  improve  them  ;  and  the  ampler 
his  training  and  opportunities,  the  more  peremptory  is 
this  obligation. 

The  college  graduate  should  in  his  political  action 
maintain  the  manly  spirit  which  is  the  natural  growth 
of  his  training ;  and  this  quality  was  never  so  much 
needed  as  now  in  American  politics.  The  existence  of 
political  parties,  and  the  divisions  of  citizens  among 
them  according  to  their  opinions,  interests,  traditions, 


23 


or  temperament,  seem  inseparable  from  a  free  common 
wealth.  Mr.  Burke,  in  his  "  Thoughts  on  the  Cause 
of  the  Present  Discontents,"  has  stated  with  his  ac- 
customed force  the  duty  of  political  association,  and 
the  unhappy  and  even  unpatriotic  position  of  "  de- 
tached "  gentlemen  who  hold  themselves  aloof  from  it. 
The  duty  of  good  men  to  associate  when  the  bad  com- 
bine ;  the  necessity  of  organization  for  promoting  any 
policy  in  government ;  the  impotence  of  men  who  cul- 
tivate an  austere  individuality, —  all  this  may  be  admit- 
ted. Some  mode  also  for  collecting  the  general  sense 
of  voters  of  the  same  party  for  the  purpose  of  concert 
in  the  support  of  candidates  by  means  of  a  preliminary 
conference  or  expressions  of  opinion,  seems  convenient 
and  reasonable. 

There  are,  however,  existing  conditions  in  American 
politics  which  require  the  citizen  to  watch  jealously  the 
limitations  of  party  allegiance.  A  machine  has  been 
created,  beginning  with  the  primary  meeting  and 
ascending  to  State  and  national  organizations,  which 
becomes  at  times  an  intolerable  tyranny.  Adopting  the 
scandalous  war  cry,  "To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils," 
it  rules  by  addressing  the  lowest  passions.  The  caucus, 
managed  by  experts,  instead  of  expressing  the  popular 
sense  is  as  likely  to  express  only  the  command  of  some 
partisan  chief.  Two  or  three  public  men,  with  no  rec- 
ords of  meritorious  service,  by  arts  unworthy  of  states- 
men and  of  honest  men,  are  able  to  override  the  wishes 


24 


of  the  constituent  body,  and  to  defy  the  moral  sense  of 
the  people.  They  are,  in  their  field,  stronger  than 
churches,  colleges,  and  public  journals  combined, — 
though  at  times  foiled  by  some  happy  turn  of  events 
which  gives  to  the  party  a  candidate  worthy,  by  his  cul- 
ture, his  character,  and  his  blameless  record,  of  the 
honorable  title  of  statesman.  They  set  themselves 
against  an  improved  civil  service,  and  checkmate  and 
thrust  at  a  President  who  would  make  the  reform 
"  thorough,  radical,  and  complete."  This  system  of  dic- 
tation by  unscrupulous  partisan  leaders,  with  a  body  of 
henchmen  at  their  backs,  is  perverting  our  elections 
from  a  conflict  of  principles  to  a  struggle  of  placemen  ; 
is  destroying  statesmanship  and  corrupting  the  sources 
of  national  life.  Of  this  system  at  its  start  Dr. 'Von 
Hoist,  of  Freiburg,  has  said  in  his  recent  review  of  our 
constitutional  and  political  history,  "  From  that  hour 
this  maxim  [to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils]  has 
remained  an  inviolable  principle  of  American  politi- 
cians ;  and  it  is  owing  only  to  the  astonishing  vitality  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  to  the  altogether 
unsurpassed  and  unsurpassable  favor  of  their  natural 
conditions,  that  the  State  has  not  succumbed  under  the 
onerous  burden  of  the  curse." 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that  a  new  public  spirit  has  arisen 
among  the  young  men  of  the  country —  many  of  whom 
are  college  graduates — who  are  carrying  their  inde- 
pendent convictions  into  civil  activities,  and  are  demand- 


25 


ing  with  an  emphasis  which  partisans  are  beginning  to 
respect,  that  public  life  shall  be  fairly  expressive  of  the 
intelligence,  the  moral  sentiment,  and  the  patriotism 
of  the  age. 

No  subject  of  national  politics  requires  so  much  the 
attention  of  educated  men  to-day  as  the  reconstruction 
of  our  civil  service  upon  the  principles  of  enlightened 
statesmanship.  For  the  first  forty  years  of  our  history 
under  the  Constitution  that  service  depended  on  per- 
sonal integrity  and  fitness,  and  not  upon  political  opin- 
ion. But  with  President  Jackson  civil  service  and  par- 
tisan service  became  synonymous,  and  so  they  have 
remained  to  this  day.  While  in  other  respects  the 
nation  has  made  remarkable  advances  in  methods  of 
administration,  in  this  its  movement  has  been  retrograde, 
and  we  have  fallen  far  behind  the  progress  of  other 
civilized  nations.  The  civil  force  is  treated  as  a  party 
force  to  be  marshalled  in  elections,  giving  a  portion  of 
its  time  and  of  its  compensation  to  keep  one  party  in 
power,  although  the  whole  people  is  taxed  to  support 
it ;  and  still  more  it  is  now  treated  as  the  working  force 
of  a  dominant  faction  within  one  party,  and  of  Senators 
who  happen  to  enjoy  Executive  favor.  Members  of 
Congress  assume  as  a  right  to  open  and  shut  the  doors 
to  the  public  service  among  their  constituents,  thus 
usurping  the  power  which  the  Constitution  has  con- 
fided only  to  the  President.  This  unconstitutional  pre- 
tension   has    been    maintained    in   recent    times    by    a 

4 


26 


remarkable  innovation  called  "  the  courtesy  of  tlie  Sen- 
ate," according  to  which  a  Senator,  objecting  to  a  nom- 
ination for  a  post  in  his  State  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  the  nominee  is  not  his  man,  is  joined  by  Senators 
of  his  own  party  from  other  States,  to  whom  he  is 
expected  to  return  like  favors ;  and  thus  one  branch  of 
the  government  seeks  to  coerce  another  to  surrender  its 
unquestioned  prerogative.  So  gross  has  this  abuse 
become  that  Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  nominated  as  Col- 
lector of  Customs  for  the  port  of  New  York, —  a  man 
of  eminent  character  and  fitness,  beloved  for  his  purity 
of  life  and  noble  charities, — was  rejected  simply  be- 
cause a  Senator  from  his  State  required  his  rejection ; 
and  he  received  from  Senators  of  his  own  party, 
according  to  common  report,  only  the  support  of  six, 
among  whom  were  the  Senators  from  Massachusetts  and 
the  junior  Senator  from  Rhode  Island.  The  Senator 
who  demanded  the  rejection  has  been  ambitious  to  dis- 
play contempt  for  all  efforts  to  put  the  civil  service  on 
an  honorable  footing,  reminding  us,  by  his  sneers  at 
the  movement  to  reform  it,  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  who 
in  coarse  and  cynical  irony  was  accustomed  to  jeer  at 
all  who  objected  to  the  gross  parliamentary  corruption 
of  his  time  as  "  patriots,  saints,  Spartans,  boys." 

Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  immense  force  of 
revenue  officers,  postmasters,  marshals,  and  deputies, 
who  are  by  law  and  every  rational  theory  of  govern- 
ment the  servants   of  the  whole  public,  have  become 


27 


the  senants  of  one  party,  and  still  more  the  servants  of 
individual  partisans.  Fifty  thousand  or  more  office- 
holders, whose  duties  do  not  concern  political  opinion, 
are  subject  to  dismissal  with  new  administrations  and 
new  Senators.  AYitness  the  natural  effect  of  all  this 
on  the  tone  of  public  life !  On  the  one  hand,  the  offi- 
cer who  ought  to  be  the  honorable  representative  of 
his  government  and  people  is  degraded  to  be  the  sub- 
servient, parasitical  agent  of  a  partisan  chief;  and  on 
the  other,  public  men  expect  to  hold  their  places,  not 
by  their  services  and  principles,  the  policies  they  have 
upheld,  the  measures  they  have  devised  or  carried,  but 
by  their  skill  in  manipulating  caucuses  and  maintaining 
a  compact  body  of  political  dependents.  How,  under 
such  a  system,  can  self-respect  and  efficiency  and  char- 
acter prevail  in  the  civil  service  ?  How  under  such  a 
training  can  there  be  honor,  wisdom,  magnanimity,  and 
disinterested  patriotism  in  statesmen  ? 

This  use  of  patronage  for  political  purpose  once 
existed  in  England.  It  was  a  part  of  Sir  Robert  AYal- 
pole's  scheme  of  parliamentary  corruption,  and  flour- 
ished later  under  Lord  North.  But  the  system  weak- 
ened with  the  progress  of  reform,  and  at  length,  as  the 
result  of  a  movement  beginning  in  1853  and  culminat- 
ing in  1870,  it  was  displaced  by  a  system  of  merit  and 
competition  open  to  all, —  to  the  sons  of  tradesmen  and 
the  sons  of  noblemen  alike.  The  reform  has  had  in  its 
course  the  efficient  support  of  eminent  statesmen  of 


28 


both  parties  as  members  of  the  ministry  or  of  parlia- 
mentary commissions, —  iVberdeen,  Palmerston,  Russell, 
Derby,  Nortlicote,  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan,  Bright,  and 
Lowe.  Less  than  three  months  ago,  in  a  new  election 
which,  after  a  contest  exceeding  in  interest  and  passion 
our  recent  Presidential  elections,  reversed  the  foreign 
and  domestic  policy  of  the  empire,  of  the  fifty  thou- 
sand persons  in  the  civil  service  less  than  fifty,  who 
necessarily  w^ere  to  represent  the  new  policy,  went  out 
with  Beaconsfield  and  came  in  with  Gladstone. 

The  colleges  of  the  country  —  its  educated  men  — 
have  it  in  their  power  to  create  a  public  opinion  which 
shall  insure  the  triumph  of  this  reform  and  compel  the 
retirement  of  public  men  who  stand  in  its  way.  This 
is  a  measure  of  politics  indeed ;  but  it  is  also  a  Avork  of 
patriotism,  a  movement  of  civilization. 

Li  this  connection  and  in  this  presence,  one  name 
above  all  others  deserves  mention, —  that  of  a  graduate 
of  Brown  University,  a  native  and  always  a  citizen  of 
llhode  Island,  the  earliest,  ablest,  and  most  persistent 
advocate  of  civil-service  reform  in  Congress.  Without 
the  support  of  party  or  any  active  force  of  public  opin- 
ion, he  embodied  it  in  a  bill  and  defended  it  in  successive 
reports  and  speeches.  -He  spoke  like  a  statesman  who 
looks  far  before  and  far  behind  him  ;  and  while  others 
thought  only  of  local  interests  and  temporary  issues,  he 
devoted  himself  with  his  energy,  his  intellectual  grasp, 
and  his  positive   conviction  to  this  enduring  work  of 


29 


statesmanship.  When  history  shall  record  what  this 
generation  has  done  for  the  elevation  of  American 
politics,  it  will  write  in  grateful  characters  the  name 
of  Thomas  Allen  Jenckes. 

The  political  education  of  the  people,  in  a  country 
governed  by  universal  suffrage,  will  always  be  the  duty 
of  those  who  have  had  a  special  opportunity  to  study 
political  subjects.  In  the  recent  financial  contest  in 
this  country  two  facts  appeared :  First,  that  there  was 
a  great  want  of  definite  knowledge  among  the  people 
on  political  and  economical  questions ;  and  secondly, 
that  everywhere  there  was  a  craving  for  information 
concerning  them.  Large  audiences  in  agricultural 
and  manufacturing  districts  would  listen  for  hours  to 
statements  of  the  elementary  laws  of  political  economy, 
accompanied  by  detailed  figures  and  illustrations.  The 
spirit  of  antagonism  to  society,  which  in  other  coun- 
tries breaks  out  in  Communism  and  Nihilism,  -s^ith  us 
assumes  the  form  of  an  attack  on  the  currency.  The 
crusade  was  made  at  a  period  of  industrial  depression, 
and  was  carried  on  with  an  extraordinary  zeal,  and  with 
all  the  arts  known  to  modern  agitation.  It  became  a 
powerful  political  force,  decided  elections,  carried  one 
branch  of  Congress,  and  well  nigh  involved  us  in  finan- 
cial ruin.  The  delusion  w^as  arrested  by  a  combined 
effort  which  teaches  a  perpetual  lesson.  A  few  earnest 
men  in  the  West  organized  an  "  Honest  Money  League ;" 


30 


they  distributed  two  hundred  thousand  pamphlets ; 
they  addressed  the  masses  not  only  in  populous  centres, 
but  sought  remote  villages  and  the  farming  populations, 
and  in  simple  and  effective  statements  exposed  the  mis- 
chievous sophistries  which  had  been  industriously 
spread.  This  movement,  and  kindred  efforts  of  our 
public  men, —  notably  those  of  Mr.  Schurz  and  Mr. 
Garfield, —  dissipated  popular  ignorance,  and  saved  this 
nation  from  one  of  the  worst  calamities  which  ever 
threatened  it.  The  educated  man  of  earnest  purpose 
and  positive  conviction  can  follow  the  communist,  the 
inflationist,  the  enemy  of  social  order,  wherever  he  may 
go,  confident  that  the  masses  will  in  the  end  heed  the 
teachings  of  reason,  and  experience. 

Public  speaking, —  or  the  platform  as  it  is  called, — 
supplies  an  opportunity  for  the  political  education  of 
the  people  in  England  and  the  United  States,  such  as  is 
found  in  no  other  countries.  In  Germany  this  mode  of 
acting  upon  public  opinion  is  not  yet  a  habit,  although 
it  is  likely  to  become  such  with  the  progress  of  the 
republican  spirit.  In  France,  where  a  more  liberal 
system  is  now  under  consideration,  the  right  to  hold  a 
public  meeting  for  the  discussion  of  political  questions 
is  not  yet  admitted,  even  by  a  government  founded  on 
universal  suffrage.  Such  a  meeting  can  be  held  only  by 
a  license  from  the  Prefect  of  Police,  rarely  granted 
except  during  a  period  of  ten  days  near  an  election  of 
deputies,  and  it  is   denied  altogether  during  the  three 


31 


days  immediately  preceding  the  election.  The  police 
are  conspicuously  present,  "  assisting,"  as  it  is  called, 
with  power  to  close  the  session  and  arrest  the  speakers 
for  language  which  they  may  deem  offensive  to  the 
Government  or  tending  to  disturb  the  public  peace. 
The  English-speaking  race  submits  to  no  such  despotic 
restrictions.  It  maintains  a  platform  where  the  speaker 
may  say  what  he  likes  and  the  people  may  listen  to 
what  they  like, —  the  police  being  present  to  protect, 
and  not  to  prevent  free  speech.  In  the  hour  of  public 
peril,  in  seasons  when  foreign  or  domestic  questions 
press  for  solution, — whenever  statesmen  seek  to  direct 
their  countrymen  in  the  w^ay  of  honor  and  safety,  or 
the  people  to  learn  the  lessons  of  wisdom, — you  will  see 
crowds  moved  by  a  common  impulse,  gathering  in  the 
open  air,  under  spreading  tents,  or  in  town  halls,  court 
houses,  or  theatres,  where  orators  and  audiences  have 
absolute  freedom  to  speak  and  listen.  No  English  or 
American  municipality  is  deemed  complete  in  its  ap- 
pointments which  has  not  its  spacious  hall  for  popular 
assemblies,  like  those  of  Birmingham  and  Manchester, 
or  those  of  Boston  and  Worcester.  A  people,  which 
by  right  and  habit  maintains  a  free  platform,  needs  for 
the  maintenance  of  domestic  order  no  standing  army, 
no  police  espionage. 

Surely  one  who  has  had  the  generous  training  of 
the  College  ought,  except  in  rare  cases  of  physical  dis- 
ability, to  qualify  himself  for  guiding  public  opinion  in 


32 


this  mode,  which  is  sanctioned  by  the  customs  and  tra- 
ditions of  the  two  kindred  nations  among  whom  liberty 
and  order  stand  upon  the  surest  foundations.  There 
are  indeed  gifts  of  voice,  manner,  person,  unction, 
which  are  born  with  the  man  and  cannot  be  acquired, — 
such  as  have  distinguished  Whitefield,  O'Connell,  Kos- 
suth, and  Bright;  but  a  genius  for  oratory  is  not  essen- 
tial to  effective  public  speaking.  Cobden  did  not  have 
it,  and  yet  no  speaker  has  done  so  much  in  our  time  to 
change,  direct,  and  concentrate  political  opinion.  His 
style  was  simple,  like  conversation,  and  rejected  all  the 
glitter  of  rhetoric ;  but  he  went  straight  to  the  under- 
standing, and  carried  conviction  to  audiences  various  in 
tastes  and  prejudices. 

The  style  of  public  speaking  in  our  country  is 
changing  for  the  better.  Stately  periods,  studied  ges- 
tures, and  academic  elaboration  are  less  effective  than 
formerly,  and  the  sober  sense  of  our  time  has  become,  as 
it  ought  to  be,  intolerant  of  turgid  rhetoric  and  certain 
affectations  of  passion  and  patriotism  which  once  drew 
rounds  of  applause  ;  but  the  capacity  to  give  to  a  pop- 
ular assembly  well-considered  thoughts  upon  political 
and  social  themes  was  never  a  power  so  effective  for 
good  as  it  is  to  day.  The  educated  man  cannot  afford 
to  dispense  with  it,  least  of  all,  as  some  do,  to  depreci- 
ate it.  Of  what  avail  is  much  of  the  college  curricu- 
lum—  the  study  of  rhetoric,  and  logic,  the  writing  of 
dissertations  with  infinite   labor  limae,  the  training  in 


33 


elocution,  the  exercises  in  declamation,  the  debates  of 
the  societies,  the  parts  on  exhibition  and  commence- 
ment days, —  if  after  one  has  painfully  wrought  the 
weapons  for  maintaining  truth  and  assailing  error  before 
men,  he  is  to  lay  them  aside  forever  like  rusty  armor  in 
an  attic  ] 

A  condition  of  public  speaking  in  England  and  the 
United  States  deserves  mention, —  and  I  delight  here  as 
always  to  join  together  two  kindred  nations  who  ought 
ever  to  act  as  one  in  movements  of  civilization,  and 
whose  common  language  and  spirit  are  destined  to  a 
dominion  wider  and  more  enduring  than  those  of  any 
race.  Elsewhere  the  orator  addresses  the  self-interest, 
the  instinct  for  equality,  loyalty,  love  of  glory,  nation- 
ality ;  but  with  the  English-speaking  race  the  appeal  to 
the  moral  sense  has  been  most  eifective.  So  it  was 
when  this  nation  broke  the  fetters  of  four  millions  of 
slaves ;  and  when  the  English  people  abolished  slavery 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  within  a  few  weeks  in  the  elec- 
tion of  a  new  government  declared  that  their  arms  and 
diplomacy  should  no  longer  be  used  to  uphold  Moslem 
barbarism  aud  oppression  in  eastern  Europe,  or  to  wage 
aggressive  warfare  upon  uncivilized  races  in  Africa  and 
Asia. 

The  scholar  must  not  allow  his  superior  attainments 
to  isolate  him  from  common  sympathies.  If  he  would 
help  men,  he  must  remain  of  them,  and  while  he  directs 

5 


34 


them  to  "  nobler  modes  of  life,  sweeter  manners,  purer 
laws,"  taking  always  the  best  view  of  their  conduct  and 
purposes.  The  satirist  may  laugh  at  the  follies  of  a 
degenerate  age,  but  satire  never  arrested  national  de- 
cline. He  may,  like  Pascal  in  the  "  Provincial  Let- 
ters," unmask  the  hypocrisy  of  some  class  or  order, 
but  his  weapon  serves  no  end  when  aimed  at  his  gen- 
eration. The  cynic,  with  his  contempt  for  mankind, 
will  find  that  mankind  has  no  ear  for  him.  ]Men  will 
accept  as  guide  only  him  who  comes  to  them  with  the 
tone  and  manner  of  a  friend. 

A  certain  class  of  scholars  in  our  day  and  country — 
not  a  large  one,  it  may.  be  —  appear  to  be  pessimists 
in  their  reflections  on  public  affairs.  Their  general 
views  are  excellent,  but  their  cynical  tone  deprives 
them  of  the  influence  which  justly  belongs  to  their  high 
character  and  their  unquestioned  patriotism.  They  see 
in  public  life  only  corruption  and  low  ambition.  They 
mourn  over  the  failure  of  universal  suffrage,  instead  of 
marking  its  evils  and  showing  in  what  better  way  man- 
kind may  be  governed.  At  literary  festivals,  in  journals 
and  magazines  distinguished  by  finish  of  style  and 
sharpness  of  wit,  and  in  poems  also,  they  lament  the 
decline  of  national  virtue,  and  can  see  nothing  but 
Tweeds  in  politics  and  Fisks  on  the  exchange.  It  is 
curious  to  note  —  and  I  trust  the  observation  will  not 
offend  the  sensibilities  of  any  —  that  those  who  take 
this  depressing  view  of  human  nature  in  our  age  and 


35 


country  are  conspicuously  those  who  in  religious  belief 
cherish  the  hopeful  theory  of  its  development ;  while 
those  who,  following  Augustine,  treat  human  life  as  a 
probation,  beginning  with  depravity  and  continuing  in 
a  mortal  struggle  with  foes  within  and  without,  never 
seem  to  fail  in  courage  whether  contending  with  sin  at 
home  or  civilizing  savage  races  abroad.  A  profound 
religious  conviction,  narrow  or  uncultured  though  it  be, 
is  never  cynical  or  pessimistic. 

Never  in  human  history, —  never,  certainly,  in  the 
history  of  our  country, —  has  there  been  a  time  when  it 
would  be  so  irrational  to  lose  faith  in  man  as  now. 
Everywhere  there  is  work  for  the  patriot,  the  scholar, 
and  the  Christian  ;  but  nowhere  does  he  confront  des- 
perate evils.  In  religion,  in  politics,  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  every -day  as  well  as  of  heroic  virtues  there  is 
no  decline. 

Our  age  is  not  a  superstitious  one;  hardly,  in  a 
technical  sense,  a  religious  one, —  that  is,  in  its  interest 
in  traditional  points  of  controversy.  It  subordinates 
dogma  to  conduct ;  it  mellows  the  old  creeds  or  gives 
them  a  liberal  construction, —  but  it  is  loyal  to  the  sub- 
stance of  faith.  One  may  indeed  fasten  on  certain 
aspects  of  modern  thought, —  agnosticism,  for  instance, 
—  and  lament,  as  men  have  always  lamented,  the  decay 
of  faith  ;  but  his  outlook  would  be  narrow  and  partial. 
Life,  if  we  compare  the  Sacred  Record  with  our  per- 
sonal  observation,  is   purer  now  than   among   the   be- 


36 


lievers  of  Rome  and  Corinth  who  were  converted  by  the 
direct  ministrations  of  the  Apostles.  On  the  platform, 
in  public  journals  and  in  social  life,  the  Christian  belief 
and  its  ministers  were  never  treated  with  more  genuine 
respect.  Even  Rationalists  and  Positivists  confess  the 
prudential  argument  for  revealed  rehgion  and  its  benefi- 
cent power  in  the  civilization  and  government  of  man- 
kind. An  English  writer,  who  ranks  as  a  Positivist, 
said  to  me  last  summer  that  it  was  the  religious  bodies 
which  had  saved  the  mining  and  manufacturing  districts 
of  England  from  barbarism.  For  half  a  century  Mr, 
Emerson  has  been  regarded  by  many  good  people  as  a 
very  dangerous  teacher,  and  yet  not  long  ago,  as  an 
overseer  of  Harvard  College,  he  gave  his  voice  as  well 
as  his  vote  against  dispensing  with  the  compulsory 
attendance  of  students  on  the  morning  prayers  ;  and 
some  have  thought  they  discovered  in  his  later  utter- 
ances on  religion  a  definite  departure  from  the  panthe- 
ism which  was  ascribed  to  his  earlier  productions. 

Our  people  have  in  recent  history  shown  in  their 
relation  as  citizens  not  only  the  finer  and  more  subtile 
inspirations  which  rise  and  subside  with  heroic  periods, 
but  also  the  equally  essential  though  less  shining  quali- 
ties on  which  constitutional  government  depends, — good 
sense,  patience,  moderation,  tolerance  of  adverse  opin- 
ion, the  spirit  of  concession,  tact  in  meeting  new 
exigencies  where  the  written  law  or  precedents  fail, 
and    sobriety    in    the    midst    of    circumstances    which 


37 


move  the  depths  of  popular  passion.  The  surrender 
of  Mason  and  Slidell ;  the  maintenance  of  peace  with 
France  when  Louis  Napoleon  was  scheming  for  inter- 
vention in  our  civil  war  (from  which  we  were  saved  by 
the  refusal  of  the  British  Cabinet),  and  was  sending 
troops  to  Mexico  to  extend  the  dominion  of  the  Latin 
race  on  this  continent ;  the  maintenance  of  peace  with 
England  when  "Alabaraas,"  built  in  her  dockyards  and- 
issuing  from  her  ports,  were  sweeping  our  commerce 
from  the  ocean, —  these  are  signal  instances  of  national 
self-control.  What  nation  could  more  peacefully  and 
fairly  have  settled  the  disputed  succession  to  a  throne 
than  we  settled  the  Presidential  controversy  of  1876  by 
its  submission  to  a  new  tribunal  of  fifteen  men  in  an 
emergency  for  which  the  Constitution  had  made  no  pro- 
vision,— the  award  made  by  one  majority,  and  one  mem- 
ber afterwards  stating  that  the  case  appeared  so  bal- 
anced that  he  first  wrote  opinions  on  both  sides  in  order 
the  better  to  present  the  opposite  views  to  his  own 
mind  ?  And  yet  forty-five  millions  of  people,  without 
disturbance,  without  the  resistance  of  a  single  citizen, 
without  the  arming  of  a  single  soldier,  accepted  as  law 
and  government  a  judgment  rendered  on  so  narrow  an 
issue  by  the  casting  vote  of  one  hesitating  man ! 

We  have  lifted  four  millions  of  slaves  to  manhood 
and  citizenship,  men  of  another  color  and  another  race, 
—  an  achievement  for  which  Tocqueville,  abolitionist 
though  he  was,  did  not  dare   to  hope  ;  and  we  have 


38 


done  it  with  less  personal  violence,  less  disturbance  of 
industry,  less  friction  of  social  forces  than  the  most 
sanguine  patriot  imagined  was  possible.  More  recently 
a  destructive  theory  of  finance  seemed  to  overcome  the 
popular  imagination,  but  we  have  seen  the  fanaticism 
arrested  by  appeals  to  sober  reason. 

And  when  heroic  qualities  have  been  needed,  has 
this  people  been  found  wanting?  In  1861  we  appeared 
to  foreign  observers,  even  to  many  of  ourselves,  to  be 
given  up  to  materialism, —  loving  comfort,  greedy  of 
wealth,  feeble  in  national  spirit,  lacking  in  personal 
courage,  without  faith  in  ourselves  and  our  country ; 
and  foreign  statesmen,  even  the  best  of  them,  with  few 
exceptions,  believed  our  dissolution  was  at  hand.  But 
when  our  people  faced  the  dread  questions,  whether 
the  country  of  Washington  should  be  severed  in  twain, 
whether  the  Mississippi  should  flow  through  divided 
empires,  whether  slavery  should  be  perpetual  on  this 
continent,  whether  the  hope  of  the  nations  should  be 
darkened,  there  rose  a  spirit  from  east  to  west, —  from 
farm,  work-shop,  factory,  college, —  a  spirit  of  self-sac- 
rifice, patriotism,  nationality,  and  devotion  to  liberty, 
which  has  won  the  admiration  of  mankind,  and  will 
move  the  souls  of  distant  posterity  as  the  stories  of 
Leonidas,  savior  of  Greece,  and  of  William  of  Orange, 
savior  of  Holland,  have  swayed  the  departed  genera- 
tions. 

Let  us,  then,  my  brethren,  have  faith  in  the  suffrage 


39 


of  the  people,  though  it  does  not  elect  us  ;  in  our  coun- 
try, though  another  party  than  our  own  should  succeed  ; 
ill  religion,  though  our  particular  sect  dwindles  ;  in  the 
human  race,  though  it  does  not  always  behave  as  we 
would  have  it. 

And  now  a  final  word  to  the  young  men  who  to- 
morrow are  to  receive  their  commissions  from  the  Uni- 
versitv.  You  meet  at  the  threshold  of  your  career  a 
period  of  great  interest  and  activity,  and  with  the  open- 
ing of  the  twentieth  century  you  will  be  in  all  the 
prime  of  manly  power.  Tliere  will  be  in  your  day,  as 
in  all  days,  ignorance  to  be  overcome,  delusions  to  be 
dispelled,  low  ambition  to  be  withstood,  noble  causes  to 
be  advanced.  Here  then  is  your  opportunity  ;  here 
also  is  your  duty.  Carry  into  the  State  and  into  the 
Church  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  College  ;  hold  fast  to 
the  independent  conviction  which  is  born  of  your  train- 
ing ;  maintain  your  individuality  against  combined 
masses,  your  right  of  private  judgment  against  all 
.aggressive  force  ;  keep  your  heart  warm  and  healthy 
by  contact  with  the  ])eople  ;  have  faith  in  the  best 
instincts  of  living  men  and  in  the  highest  possibilities 
of  your  race.  If  the  world's  best  things  come  to  you, 
use  them  with  moderation  ;  but  if  fame  and  fortune 
leave  }ou  uncrowned,  you  will  deserve  well  of  Alma 
winter  if  you  live  brave,  honest,  simple  lives,  and  all 
the  ends  you  aim  at  be  your  country's,  your  God's, 
and  truth's. 


POEM. 


THE    MYSTERY    OF    LIFE. 


O  mystery  of  human  life ! 

O  wondrous  end  of  man  ! 
O  theme  with  curious  questions  rife, 

With  God's  divinest  phiu, — 
Plan,  vvhicli  no  human  mind  can  reach, 

No  human  tongue  can  tell ; 
Too  deep  for  angel's  thought  or  speech. 

Boundless,  ineffable! 

How  doth  the  acorn,  germinant, 

Become  the  mighty  tree ; 
How  grows  the  infant  spark  of  thought 

Broader  than  land  and  sea! 
The  mighty  oak  its  crumbling  boughs 

Back  to  earth's  bosom  gives ; 
But  ages  come,  and  ages  pass, — 

Mind,  still  expanding,  lives. 

How  man,  with  ever-longing  soul. 

Some  fancied  goal  desires — 
Like  toiling  miners,  sinking  shafts 

Deep  towards  earth's  central  fires — 


42 

But  leaves,  unsonght,  life's  highest  good, 

As  bats  ignore  the  sun— 
AucI,  grasping  for  the  weak,  the  mean, 

Misses  the  grand,  the  one. 

Life  scorns  to  jield  its.  noblest  fruit 

To  men  of  aimless  ease ; 
No  coral  reef  springs  up,  uncaused, 

Above  the  deep,  blue  seas ; 
Work  with  thy  miglit,  O  mortal  man, 

With  Avorthy  ends  in  view; 
Witli  soul  and  nerve,  with  heart  and  brain. 

To  God's  high  model  true. 

All  wealth  of  faithful  work  is  bom. 

All  greatneSvS  won  by  toil, 
E'en  as  the  fartner's  golden  corn 

Springs  from  the  deep-worked  soil ; 
Spoil  not  thy  soul  with  nerveless  aim. 

With  Idle,  weak  desire ; 
Strive  nobi}'  for  a  noble  name — 

To  all  high  deeds  aspire. 

As  from  the  crucible  the  gold. 

Tried  by  the  fierce  tiame,  flows — 
As  from  the  sculptor's  dust  and  grime 

Tiie  chiselled  wonder  grows — 
So  from  earth's  friction,  toil  and  grief. 

Bring  beauty,  love  and  truth,— 
Garments  of  praise  for  ripened  days, 

The  light  and  crown  of  youth. 

On  wealth  intent,  in  wild  pursuit, 

O'er  distant  climes  and  isles. 
The  merchant  drives,  with  eager  haste, 

And  heap  on  heap  he  piles ; 


43 

Like  saud-hills  on  the  wave-washed  shore, 
Like  clouds  of  drifting  spray, 

Like  mole-hills  in  the  plonghniau's  path. 
His  treasures  melt  away. 

Ambition  mounts  his  fiery  steeds, 

Plumed,  o'er  new  heights  to  soar; 
And  waves  aloft  his  potent  wand. 

O'er  subject  sea  and  shore; 
Nurse  thy  fair  bubble,  mau  of  pride— 

Thyself,  thy  mighty  care; 
Reach  forth  for  other  worlds  to  rule ; 

And  grasp — but  empty  air. 

The  athlete  struggles  in  the  race. 

The  expected  crown — his  life — 
Muscle  and  bone,  and  wrenching  nerve 

Tense  with  the  mighty  strife ; 
O  bootless  task,  such  wreath  to  win, 

Triumph,  alas,  how  brief  J 
His  valor,  nought  but  force  of  limb. 

His  crown— a  fading  leaf! 

Proud  of  the  flag  that  o'er  him  waves. 
Of  deeds  his  bravery  wrought, 

Of  rights  secured,  of  wrongs  redrest. 
Of  battles  grandly  fought— 

The  warrior,  with  his  sword  unsheathed. 
Cries  "  Victory !  or  death  1" 

How  soon  his  vaunted  glory  pales- 
Brief  as  a  passing  breath. 

Scorched  on  the  line,  chilled  at  the  pole, 

Tossed  on  the  billowy  foam. 
Ambition  lures  the  explorer  on, 

With  tireless  zeal  to  roam; 


44 

Perchance  he  finds  nor  sea  nor  laud, 

But  faith  still  onward  leads — 
The  fame,  the  wealth,  the  rest  he  seeks, 

False  to  his  hope,  recedes. 

The  gold  that  gilds  the  sunset  cloud 

Fades  with  the  parting  day ; 
The  silver  shimmer  on  the  sea 

At  nightfall  melts  away ; 
And  vain  man's  mortal  hopes  and  aims, 

So  bright,  but  soon  so  dim, 
Die,  like  the  flashing  lightning's  gleams. 

Above  the  horizon's  rim. 

New  heights,  new  depths,  of  wealth  unknown, 

Wait  the  behest  of  thought ; 
As  mines  in  countries  unexplored. 

Wait  to  be  found  and  wrought ; 
The  high,  the  grand,  the  true,  the  good. 

These  are  man's  fitting  goal, — 
God's  jewels, — ore  of  priceless  worth — 

The  ingots  of  the  soul. 

Then  winnow  grains  of  truth  and  love 

From  this  world's  useless  straw ; 
Who  rules  his  life,  he  rules  the  end — 

'Tis  nature's  changeless  law ; 
.0  blest  the  man,  supremely  blest. 

Whose  life  sublimely  flows ; 
For  God's  approving  sentence  sheds 

A  halo  o'er  its  close, 

O  man,  in  God's  own  image  made  — 

Born  of  God's  highest  thought, 
0  man,  for  nobler  aims  designed. 

For  nobler  purpose  wrought, — 


45 

Build  not  on  time's  illusive  .sands 

The  pillar  of  tliy  fame ; 
But  high,  on  monuments  unseen, 

Carve  an  immortal  name. 

What  harvest  fields  of  joy  and  hope 

Whiten  the  world's  broad  face; 
A  sickle  waits  each  willing  hantl, 

Each  heart,  God's  helping  grace ; 
No  seed  is  lost, — no  precious  grain 

To  earth  can,  useless,  fall : 
God  guards  the  reapers  and  the  seed, 

His  love  shall  garner  all. 


■I:1N1E!)   I!V    IHK  l'li«)Vll>ENCK  I'KESS  COMPANY. 


/9; 


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